Why is this Occurring?
The trash that ends up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is solely because of human-induced actions. About 80% of the garbage that ends up in the GPGP is from land-based sources such as industrial activities, improper disposal of garbage, and using the ocean as a disposal site. The other 20% of garbage in the GPGP comes from water-based sources such as oil platforms, and shipping. The majority of this garbage is plastic, and plastic takes a considerable amount of time to breakdown. Some of these plastics can take up to 450 years to decompose as you can see in the image below. This is why plastic accumulates so rapidly in the ocean as it takes such a long time to breakdown.